HBO Grants Store Discounts to 'True Blood' Fans on GetGlue

Merchandise tie-in is the first promotional discount to be offered by social entertainment company GetGlue.

In addition to rewarding check-ins with stickers, social entertainment company GetGlue is now offering discounts on branded merchandise for its users.

The first discount is for fans of HBO’s vampire series, True Blood. As a result of the new promotion, GetGlue users are eligible for discounts on True Blood merchandise in HBO’s online store.

The bigger the fan per GetGlue standards, the bigger the discount offered: All users are eligible for a 10 percent discount; Fans, or “Truebies” in GetGlue True Blood parlance, get a 15 percent discount; Superfans, or “Makers,” get a 20 percent discount; and the Guru, the most knowledgeable True Blood fan as voted by other users, gets a $50 gift card.

Users check in to GetGlue while they are consuming entertainment. In exchange, they receive stickers and, now, rewards from partners. A user becomes a “Fan” after five check-ins over a number of days and a “Superfan” after 15 check-ins, according to CEO Alex Iskold.

In a brief, GetGlue says, “True Blood has a devoted following and a strong fan base on GetGlue, which is why it was selected for this promotion.”

Indeed, GetGlue users have checked in to True Blood more than 60,000 times to date, according to Iskold. HBO renewed the show for a fourth season earlier this year.

Iskold himself is one such True Blood fan. He says, “The stickers are a nice way to reward fans, and discounts take the whole concept of incentives and rewards to a new level. Not only I am a fan of True Blood and have a unique Truebie sticker, but I also now get 15 percent off their merchandise.”

GetGlue says more partner discounts will be announced in the coming weeks. At present, the discounts are only available on GetGlue.com. After future updates, they will be available on GetGlue’s apps for iPhone/iPad and Android, as well as other platforms.

What’s more, Iskold says future discounts will include services as well as merchandise.

HBO also plans to extend its discount offering based on the performance of this particular venture, Iskold says.

In addition to True Blood, GetGlue offers stickers for HBO shows like Entourage, Hung, Boardwalk Empire and Eastbound and Down. There are also unique HBO persona stickers for people who watch and check in to multiple HBO shows.

GetGlue users generated more than 10 million ratings and check-ins in September. That’s up from 8 million in the previous month.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In addition to ClickZ and Search Engine Watch, Lisa's work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Luxury Spot, LearnVest, MarthaStewart.com, GoodHousekeeping.com, amNewYork, and The Wall Street Journal. She's a graduate of Columbia's School of Journalism.

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